Breastfeeding may get boost from S.F.
Plan would require workplaces to provide spaces, time
San Francisco could soon have the most sweeping lactation policy in the nation, making it easier for mothers to pump breast milk in the workplace.
Supervisor Katy Tang will introduce legislation Tuesday that would require all workplaces in the city — private and public — to have a lactation space that would include a seat, surface, electrical outlet and sink. The city Department of Public Health would provide a form for women to request time from their bosses to pump, and the bosses would be legally required to accommodate the request.
The legislation would also require that all future commercial buildings include a lactation space.
State and federal law already requires private employers to make “reasonable efforts” to provide a clean space other than a bathroom where women can breastfeed or pump breast milk. But the laws do not spell out specifics, and the federal version is part of the Affordable Care Act, which Congress may soon repeal.
“New mothers who want to return to work face so many barriers, whether it’s juggling child care, balancing a new schedule or figuring out how to provide breast milk for their children,” Tang said. “Although there are existing lactation laws, they do not provide minimum standards, such as a place to sit or an electrical outlet. Many women also do not feel comfortable asking their employers for lactation breaks.”
Tang’s legislative aide, Ashley
“New mothers who want to return to work face so many barriers.” Supervisor Katy Tang
Summers, said her boss concluded that the city needed to act after she read an October report by the Public Health Department that found that breastfeeding rates among women living in San Francisco were lowest among those at the bottom of the income scale.
About 97 percent of new mothers in the city breastfeed in the days after giving birth, according to census data. Six months later, however, only 16 percent of women enrolled in the city’s Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program — which provides support for low-income families — are still exclusively breastfeeding, the report found.
Summers, the mother of an 18-month-old girl, attributes the gap to low-income women’s lack of power in the workplace and the intimate nature of talking about lactation, especially with a male supervisor.
“There’s a disparity among moms who have the ability to breastfeed while going to work,” Summers said. “People like me have understanding employers who are supportive. But it was still hard to pump at work. I can’t imagine what it must be like for a mom to go back at six weeks with a boss who isn’t supportive.”
Dr. Priti Rane, director of the Women, Infants, and Children program, which serves about 1,000 pregnant women and 1,800 new mothers, said babies who drink formula rather than breast milk are more likely to develop asthma, obesity, respiratory infections and diabetes. Mothers who don’t breastfeed are at greater risk of Type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and ovarian cancer, she said.
“Even though they intend to breastfeed longer, they aren’t able to,” Rane said. “Obviously, the big impact is health. Having a healthy baby is a huge benefit to the mom, and also, of course, the mom’s health is impacted as well. This legislation will definitely provide and empower mothers who are going back to work to continue to breastfeed.”
Last year, the Board of Supervisors passed legislation introduced by Tang requiring the city to make breastfeeding as easy and comfortable as possible for city employees. Soon after, workers installed a lactation pod in the City Hall basement, which Mavet Coronel ducked into on Monday so she could breastfeed her 6month-old daughter, Allison.
Coronel, who was attending a wedding in the rotunda, is a stay-at-home mom. She said she couldn’t imagine working while trying to feed a baby.
“There is little to no breastfeeding in public,” Coronel, 28, said in Spanish. She described having to hunt for empty aisles in the grocery store where she can feed her daughter in peace.
“It’s really difficult,” Coronel said. “Sometimes you have to go to the bathroom and do it. There’s really no choice.”
But the business community is wary of legislation that would enact more regulations — especially for owners of small shops that barely have space for a single-stall bathroom, let alone a lactation room. Summers said Tang is open to exemptions for businesses that have a financial hardship or are too cramped.
“Our goal is to make it as workable as possible for everybody, for all businesses big and small, for all employers and their employees,” said Dee Dee Workman, vice president of public policy for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. “We want to make sure that small businesses are not set up to fail. Most want to do the right thing, and are doing the right thing providing accommodations to the best of their abilities. We want to make sure they are not always in the position of saying, ‘No, we can’t do this.’ ”
A representative of the San Francisco Office of Small Business, a city agency that assists firms that have only a few employees, declined to comment on Tang’s proposal. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which lobbies at City Hall on behalf of restaurants, did not respond to calls for comment.
Tang said she was willing to talk with businesses about how the measure should be shaped.
“Our legislation seeks to make the lactation discussion a regular part of employment conversations,” she said.